The Functional Printing Market is expected to reach $13.79 Billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 22.08% from 2013 to 2020.

The functional printing market report is a comprehensive research study on the printing technologies and functional inks used for printing electronics. The report covers the entire market with a special focus on the various technologies involved, namely, inkjet, flexo, gravure, screen, and others. The report also showcases market statistics and insights for the major applications. The applications covered in the report are displays, lighting, sensors, photovoltaics, batteries, and RFID.

Over the last decade, the display and lighting markets have realized the potentials of OLED technology and have been witnessing significant developments with regards to this technology. The major restraint compelling the technology from entering the mass markets like smartphones and tablets is its high rate of production. Barring LG and Samsung, in 2012, even the television market did not see many product launches. Moreover, the OLED TVs launched by these companies have been priced to the north of $8000. This trend is expected to soon change with the advent of functional printing. A number of companies have already adopted it for the production of OLED panels. The advantages like lower costs, increased efficiency, durability, higher resolution, and lower material consumption offered by functional printing technologies will, only, see the market, growing in the coming years.

The report contains a detailed comparative study of the major technologies involved in functional printing. The market statistics for these technologies with respect to the major applications and geographies have also been presented. A holistic study of the supporting value chain segments of the market, like the materials (inks and substrates), has been conducted in perspective of the market. The market statistics for the end products; that is the applications like displays, lighting, sensors, photo-voltaics, batteries, and RFID— have been given in the report. All these statistics shown are aimed at providing the revenue stream of the functional printing whilst identifying the major revenue pockets.

Functional printing is a production process that deposits a functional material in a controlled and selective pattern upon a material. It holds a major potential to enable the next wave in high volume electronic production. The existing printing technologies are not only used for printing graphics but, also, have extended their application for printing electronic components and are, hence, used for functional printing. It is used for a number of novel applications like photovoltaic, OLED displays, sensors, RFID, batteries, and OLED lighting.

The report provides the dynamics of the market along with comprehensive forecasts of revenue with regards to— technology, materials, applications, coating, and geography. The functional printing technologies are classified into inkjet, screen printing, gravure, flexography, and others. The material section is further segmented into substrates and ink; and substrates section includes glass, plastic, and paper; and ink has been segmented into conductive inks, dielectric ink, graphene inks, and so on. Applications of functional printing include sensors, displays, batteries, RFID tags, lighting, photovoltaic, medical, and others. This report covers geographical regions which include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World.

Source: MarketsandMarkets Analysis

The major factor that is fuelling the growth of the market, currently, is the fact that it is a low cost manufacturing process. The conventional high-volume-low-cost printing techniques enable the production of lightweight and robust electronic components at a lower cost; and this printing process does not involve etching, metalizing, and copper plating, thus eliminating the wastewater treatment.

The stability of the ink for drop formation, the viscosity that must be suitable for the print heads and the ink interaction with the substrate— is taken into account while printing. These are the major factors inhibiting the growth of the market.

The market has been witnessing the convergence of several industry sectors such as printing, materials (substrate, inks, and chemicals), and electronics; which facilitate the development of new products.

4 Market Overview (Page No. - 42) 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Market Definition & Segmentation 4.3 History and Evolution 4.4 Value Chain Analysis 4.5 Market Dynamics 4.5.1 Drivers 4.5.1.1 Low Manufacturing Cost, Wide Range of Substrates and High Speed Manufacturing 4.5.1.2 Simplified Additive Manufacturing to Print Fine Features And Structures Onto All Substrates 4.5.1.3 Roll-To-Roll Printing for Large Area Processing, Which Offers Significant Cost Advantage in Fabrication 4.5.1.4 Functional Printing Has the Potential to Reduce Environmental Impact, Energy Consumption, and Material Wastage 4.5.1.5 Push Towards Thin and Flexible Form Factors in Electronics are Expected to Facilitate New Kind Of Devices That Can be Folded Or Rolled 4.5.2 Restraints 4.5.2.1 Challenges to The Electrically Functional Inks is Limiting the Growth of the Global Printed Electronics Market 4.5.2.2 Existing Technologies are Not Designed for Printed Electronics, They are Just Being Modified 4.5.3 Opportunities 4.5.3.1 Emergence of New Functionalities, Applications; and Integration Into Multiple Products 4.5.3.2 Additive Manufacturing/3d Printing, Another Game Changing Trend That Can Scale Into Many Functional Printing Applications. 4.5.4 Burning Issues 4.5.4.1 The Manufacturing Processes are Complex And Require High Level of Accuracy to Get A Desired Output 4.5.5 Winning Imperative 4.5.5.1 The Convergence Of Several Industries and Vertical Sectors Expand the Potential of Functional Printing and Will Help Leverage Untapped Markets 4.6 Porter’s Five Forces Model – Functional Printing Market 4.6.1 Degree of Competition 4.6.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers 4.6.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 4.6.4 Threat From Substitutes 4.6.5 Threat From New Entrants